Photo by Stephanie Simons

MY STORIES:

• Chad Lewis: from NFL star to family man, a life of greatness
• Elm Productions presents Zigga and Bentley, rapping is their BIZ

MY BLOG: 

Interviewing Chad Lewis and learning more about him was a great experience for me. Getting an appointment with him is no easy task, considering he is a very busy man with many people demanding his time. He was very gracious to find time for me and welcomed me into his office at BYU to discuss his past and future.

The biggest challenge I faced when writing this story was narrowing down the information. Lewis is such an interesting person with many experiences to share. I wanted to make sure that I presented him adequately and told his story the way that he would like for it to be told. Many people know about his NFL career, but don’t have a concept of his charity work or the big family that he is responsible for. Talking to him helped me to realize that fame does not change who you are, unless you let it. He has adhered to his values and passed them along to his children and many other individuals. He is an inspiring individual.

ABOUT ME:

My name is Halee Cram and I am a student at the University of Utah, majoring in communication. I want to be the next big thing in broadcast journalism. The news of the world interests me and I love to learn. I want to expand my education and become the best person that I can be. I hope to make a difference in the world of journalism by being an ethical reporter who remembers her audience. I am ambitious, self-motivated and have a knack for finding interesting and important things to pass on to my friends, family and those who read my works or follow me on social media.

MY STORIES:

• Jakob Jensen: Swim instructor to strategic communication professor
• Miracle workers: the selfless service of the Make-A-Wish Foundation

MY BLOG: 
Strategic communication is not just public relations. When I decided on my major here at the University of Utah, I didn’t know that. I had a loose idea that it was a sort of “umbrella program” that encompassed an assortment of subjects in the communications field, but I wasn’t aware of how vast that umbrella was. For my profile story, I decided to go straight to a reliable source and interview my professor for strategic communication, Jakob Jensen.

The main reason I chose to do a story on my major is because I plan on having a career in a field it covers. I was also impressed by Jensen’s teaching style early in the semester and decided since he is new to the university it would be good to introduce him and tell part of his story. However, I ran into obstacles more than once. One of those obstacles was deciding on a good focus for my story. Which direction should I take? What parts of his profession/life do I want to focus on? I had the subject; I just needed to narrow things down.

I also had difficulty locating a second source. There were a lot of questions about my focus to begin with, and that added to the uncertainty of another source. After submitting my story once, it became boldly apparent I needed another source. Fortunately, my news writing professor was able to suggest someone who could add credibility to my budding story and help define my focus at the same time. Things eventually worked out, as they usually do.

Writing the story was also an adventure. More than once my mind hit a wall and got stuck in neutral. In more than one college English course, lengthy papers are the norm. It’s the complete opposite in news writing. You have to make the determination on what is newsworthy based on your target audience and how you can get that audience to retain interest in your story. In some ways it is more difficult than a paper you write for an English 101 class, but due to the editing and polishing process you gain confidence in your work and take pride in knowing it’s worthy of being published for others to read.

ABOUT ME:

I was born in Tacoma, Wash., and grew up nearby in Port Orchard. I am the third child out of four and the only blond. I graduated from South Kitsap High School in 1999 and nine months later served a two-year LDS mission in Las Vegas, Nev.

Following my mission, I had no idea about what I wanted to do for a career. At the time, I had little interest in getting an education and drifted from job to job in the retail sector. In 2004, I started working at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash., as a marine pipe fitter helper. I knew within the first week of starting there that I didn’t want that field as my career, but stayed there for nearly four years because it paid well. In 2008 I finally walked away from the money and security of government employment to pursue an education.

At first I took one night class at Tacoma Community College to get acclimated to the classroom environment again. I didn’t do so well and decided that if I wanted to be a student, part-time status would not do. I was also in need of a change of scenery. I made up my mind to move to Utah and attend LDS Business College for my associate’s degree. While I was earning that degree I could evaluate my options for my undergraduate. Brigham Young University, Utah State University, and the University of Utah were my three main choices. At first, BYU was the frontrunner because it had a public relations program, but then I looked into the U once more and discovered something called “strategic communication.” After reading about the major and sequence, I quickly made a decision to apply.

In my free time I enjoy watching and playing sports, watching good movies, or spending time with family and friends. My favorite vacation spot is Southern California and I also enjoy the occasional short road trip.

If there’s one life lesson I have learned it is to never settle for doing something you don’t enjoy just for the sake of a paycheck, no matter how good you are at it. Find something you’re good at, make sure you like it and strive to inspire others to do the same.

Photo by Darren Soloman

MY STORIES:

• Sharing the Olympic dream: The storytellers of US Bobsled and Skeleton
  
• Junior League of Salt Lake City: Tradition in the 21st century

MY BLOG:

Power, passion and promises

Words are powerful. Depending on how they are structured in a sentence the same word can mean two completely different things.

Writing has been used since the beginning of time to tell a story. When you combine imagination with words that are overly rich they have the ability to create a vivid image for the reader — you’ve achieved success as a writer.

I began writing because my emotional state combined with my life experiences became so overpowering that I realized I needed an outlet. That’s when I started blogging.

What I didn’t realize was how many people would take notice or even care about my thoughts.

Frankly, I don’t make sense to myself sometimes but literally taking the thoughts out of my head and putting them in a concrete form on paper cleared my head and allowed me to focus.

That focus is what enabled me to achieve my dreams of representing the USA. The blog allowed all of my followers to partake in a small part of my journey into the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Over the past year and a half of retirement life’s challenges have taken on a different role. Rather than providing readers what I like to call a “cupcake” read, I tend to throw raw emotion on the paper. While most laugh at my life epiphanies, they find something to relate to.

Everyone has a story. Your life experiences have made you into the person you are today. Those stories are what I strive to tell.

People’s determination, resilience and ardor for life amaze me. I have an overpowering curiosity. My tendency to randomly walk up to strangers and ask them questions may not be the most kosher in some cultures and that has been my biggest obstacle: realizing that sometimes, people don’t want to talk.

My favorite interviews are with people who are explaining their passion. I took that focus and centered my enterprise piece on The Junior League of Salt Lake City.
The League provides its members with more than a network of women.

It gives women a sense of accomplishment. It gives them a sense of fulfillment that a day job may not be able to provide. The League enables them to feel a part of something bigger than their neighborhood, their church, town, city, or state.

Passion is what drove Amanda Bird of the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation (USBSF) to retire her dreams of being an Olympic athlete and transition into the role of the storyteller. That is why I wanted to write a profile on her.

Bird now has the ability to combine her life’s passions of writing and athletics to share intimate and personal stories with the world.

Passion is a peculiar noun comprised of seven letters but carries so much weight with it. It can drive us mad because it pulls on human emotion.

Passion can drive us to accomplishment and success. It can also drive us into a downward spiral of negativity due to an overwhelming sense of frustration.

I believe truly great writers are the ones who can sense that slippery slope and yet turn around, grab hold of the muddy earth and fight their way back to the top.

I will make it my mission as a writer to fight. I will continue seeking and learning about people’s stories.

I will be practical in my writing to ensure that the authenticity of each individual’s voice shines through the work.

I want to make it my goal to be punctual and responsive to those who have given me the courtesy of occupying their precious time. My priorities will lie with the individual over any preconceived notion I may have pertaining to the direction of my piece.

While I have a voice, I would not have a story were it not for people’s willingness to share their passions with me.

And I will be grateful for the opportunity to share those intimate moments, topics and emotions with the world.

I hope to utilize my passion for words to paint the world in brilliant and colorful stories.

ABOUT ME:

At 25 years old I have accomplished an athletic career and have since gone into retirement. This was only to push the reset button and play a different movie in life.

After competing for the US Luge team at the 2010 Winter Olympics, I decided to dedicate my life to education and career. So I packed up my car, picked up my best friend and we drove west for four days until I got to Utah.

I’m currently enrolled in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah and I am also the marketing coordinator at inContact Inc.

I’m an extremely motivated and dedicated person with a passion for life. I plan to eventually move back east to be closer to my family but the opportunities I have found in Utah inspire me to sit tight for the time being.

Photo by Walsh Photography

MY STORIES:

• NBA lockout has complicated playing opportunities for WSU alumnus Daviin Davis
• Park City’s Eating Establishment shares its secret to success

MY BLOG:

Love is the feeling of the plastic keys underneath my warm fingertips while my eyes are rapidly scanning across the computer screen. My mind swirls with unanswered questions and ideas for my story. There is a need I have to bring justice and help to those without voices. It’s all felt in the blood, the pumping adrenaline that courses through my veins and pushes my story.

That is how I feel when writing but the process is what makes me a successful writer. In this blog I will outline my story ideas, my sources, and problems I had and how I decided my focus.

All of my story ideas, thus far, have come from experiences I have had in my life. My first story idea this semester was about the NBA lockout and its impact on American players participating and employed overseas. I was first inspired by the idea when my brother graduated in 2010 from Oregon State University after playing basketball in the PAC-10 (at that time, now it’s the PAC-12). My brother finished school and was thinking of going overseas to play professionally. We talked about all of Daniel’s options and after a while, the conversation moved to his friends currently employed oversees. He then talked about how the lockout was affecting these friends overseas. I knew that was a side to the story I had never heard and it was one I wanted to expose.

My next idea was to talk to “unspoken heroes” for our class’ enterprise story. I am a waitress and one experience I had with a customer pushed my rage and need to tell the story. Waitresses, for the most part, earn an hourly wage of $2.25 an hour. This customer came over to me and gave me a $1 tip on a $45 bill. He said he needed to “sneak me my tip” behind his wife’s back because she didn’t believe in “free rides.” This statement infuriated me, it also pushed the story.

I located my sources in many ways — mostly, out of personal experience. I knew someone, who knew someone, who knew something. Out of these interviews I could attain other names, numbers and emails. If I needed more, I would try the Internet. The sources changed depending on which story I was telling. For the NBA lockout story, I knew the two interviewees, Kellen McCoy and Daviin Davis, because we all had played basketball at Weber State University in 2008-2009. The groups of people I am currently interviewing for the enterprise story came from my work at the Eating Establishment, from a person in class who gave me a resource to interview for another point of view and from walking up and down Main Street in Park City and going into restaurants and asking for the manager.

The only moral dilemmas I found in my stories was when I was asking Davis about his pay cut and the benefits included from his playing years.

The hardest part for me in my lockout story was the focus. There was so much of the story that I wanted to tell and I couldn’t address it all. I found with others’ input and a little kick in my own ass, I could pick which point to tell and stay on it. I am finding I am having a hard time with the focus on the enterprise story as well. I believe with multiple drafts and input from family and friends I can figure out what angle to address and what focus to take.

The reason why I write is because of the process; I love it all, except the editing. Every time I write, it reminds me that I love the craft and writing, period. I definitely had epiphanies about my desired career in journalism through this class. All the assignments and stories remind me about how much I love to write and learn and how to improve my craft.  Another thing I learned is I can be an incredible writer, but I also have moments when I completely suck at writing. I learned what actions and situations create the differences of when I suck at writing and when I am in my literate flow. Usually I am absolutely awful when the television is on or I am distracted. I need complete silence and a space I can speak out loud without being self-conscious in order to perform.

ABOUT ME:

Lauren Whitney Deane was born to Patrice Marie Wahlen-Deane and Gregory Steven Deane on Aug. 29, 1989, in Salt Lake City, Utah. She lived in Salt Lake City until she finished second grade. Then her mother, father and brother, Daniel Deane, moved to Park City, Utah. She attended Judge Memorial Catholic High School until her sophomore year.  In Lauren’s junior year she transferred to Park City High School in order to be closer to her home and to attend a better academic high school.

Lauren graduated from Park City High School on June 4, 2008. During her high school years she was a tri-sport athlete. She lettered as a varsity athlete in basketball three years running. She earned multiple school, region and state awards in her three years playing basketball. Lauren also lettered four years in volleyball, three years in track and field and one year in softball.

On April 16, 2008, she signed a letter of intent to play basketball at the Division One institution Weber State University (WSU). She studied communication with an emphasis in journalism at WSU. She spent two years as a Weber State Wildcat and in 2010 transferred to play basketball in Canada while attending the University of Calgary (U of C). At the U of C she was an arts major with an interest in social media. After playing in Canada for a year, Lauren returned to Park City to finish her degree and work.

She is currently finishing her degree in communication at the University of Utah and working three jobs. She is employed as a waitress at The Eating Establishment and Fuego Bistro and as an assistant coach for the Park City High School women’s basketball team. In the future she hopes to be empolyed as a journalist or anchor for a television news network.

MY STORIES:

• Local man brings family entertainment to the Hogle Zoo and Willard Bay for the holidays
• Two Utah women tell how they survived domestic violence

MY BLOG:

When class first started and I heard we were going to do two stories I thought to myself, “that’s no big deal.” Then as I continued to read the syllabus I noticed some crucial information: the aforementioned stories were to be written with in-person interviews included. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait … what?

To say I was stressed would be quite an understatement, and the stress only continued to build as the story deadlines drew closer. It wasn’t interviewing people that worried me, it was the preparation.

Before an interview you have to have an outline of what your story is going to be in order to gather questions that will back up your story. It’s that kind of preparation that about made me lose all my hair.

My enterprise story is probably my most intimidating beat to date. I’m not only writing about domestic violence, which is heavy in itself, but I’m including true stories from people who have lived through that horrific life. I definitely feel that I’m not only aiming for a good story, but I’m also obligated to those individuals to tell their story in a way that they are proud.

Luckily, Salt Lake City has a chapter of the YWCA and I was able to call a few directors there who put me in contact with the director of the Family Justice Center. She was able to lead me to sources of information about domestic abuse as well as give me some insight about what she does and about the people who seek help there.

The next few sources were the most daunting. Domestic violence awareness holds a special place in my heart, and one of the reasons for that is because I have some close friends who have experience with it. It’s always nerve wrenching when you’re involved with such a loaded topic, but thankfully my friends are really open about what happened in their past. They wanted to help spread awareness and possibly help prevent others from getting in situations like theirs by telling their stories.

I’m hoping that my story will do this topic justice because this process has taught me a lot. I’ve learned about warning signs of abuse, who’s more at risk, and where to turn for help. If just one person walks away learning something from my story that’s enough for me.

ABOUT ME:

William Ernest Henley once wrote, “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” This quote has always resonated with me. I’ve noticed how easy it is to fall into the status quo and do what is expected of you. I consider myself a free spirit and curiosity drives me, so doing what everyone else does just wouldn’t satisfy me. I like the idea of being in control of what I do and having something different to attend to each day. I want to experience different occupations, I want to interact with people from different backgrounds, and I certainly don’t want to miss out on anything. What can I say, I’m a people person and staying cooped up alone in an office just wouldn’t suit me. That is why communication seemed to be the perfect fit. I’m currently declared as a strategic communication major with a business minor and should graduate sometime in 2013. So bring it on world, I’m ready to experience everything this life has to offer.

Photo by Retrospect Photography

MY STORIES:

• University of Utah students find a new voice through Marriott Library’s ‘U and You’ project

MY BLOG:

The experience of writing a news article was a completely new concept for me. Along with originating interesting and detailed ideas, I wasn’t quite sure how to define what makes a topic appealing to others. I decided to make the task less daunting by asking myself a few simple questions. What topics interest me? What topics of conversation do students commonly talk about? And the last, can you name concepts or programs that faculty have spoken about on campus?

My first idea came out of pure luck. I practically stumbled right into it while attending a class for innovation scholars at the University of Utah. We were given the chance to tour the Marriott Library and learn about different projects it sponsors for students on campus. One in particular caught my attention. It is called the “U and You” project, which is located in the Digital Scholarship Lab and had just been introduced.

This new program is ingenious and inventive. It includes both the interests of students and staff on campus. The idea is to give students the opportunity to record their individual stories while attending the University of Utah. After the stories have been digitally recorded, they will then become transcribed into a social networking website and archived at the library for students in the years to come. It also has great potential to shape University of Utah policy and can give administrators a better idea of individuals attending the university.

This program touched on several of my questions for story ideas and definitely piqued my interest. The next step became tackling my fear of the interviewing.

Once I had contacted the appropriate students and advisors involved with the “U and You’ program, I made sure to read as much as possible regarding interviewing skills. My main concern was that the information would come up short.

But once I had completed the interviews, asking several follow-up questions, I found that it wasn’t lack of information that would be a struggle but keeping my own opinion out the article.

Once again I stumbled upon new problems I hadn’t anticipated.

I believe that with each new story journalists investigate, they face new problems and emotions that can feel unexpected. It’s been a great learning experience for me to tackle these issues as I trudge down the path to becoming a better communicator.

ABOUT ME:

Jessica Anderson, 24, is a communication student at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. She transferred to the U in August 2011 from Salt Lake Community College and is enjoying the new experience.

She is currently involved at the University of Utah as an innovative scholar and received an internship for the 2011-2012 academic year working in the student recruitment office. As a recruitment intern she has had the opportunity to explore and learn about several different departments, majors and activities available on campus.

Jessica is an avid traveler and has recently just moved back to Utah from Washington, D.C., where she and her husband, Jon, were able to explore the East Coast and its rich diversity. In the summer of 2012, they plan to attend a study abroad program in Siena, Italy, where they will take language intensive classes.

As much as she loves getting away, Jessica loves a variety of activities that Utah has to offer: concerts in Deer Valley, the Sundance Film Festival, snowboarding in Park City and boating at Bear Lake. But she said, “Nothing beats the feel and sound of a crowd at Utah football game, GO UTES!”

Picture by Lynda Cronin

MY STORIES:

• Sarah Minen’s massage business in Salt Lake City
• Don’t Ask Don’t Tell; how it has affected people in Salt Lake City

MY BLOG:

For my enterprise story I chose to write about The Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy change within the U.S. Armed Forces that took place in September 2011. I have always been an avid supporter of the LGBT community and I thought that this topic was a significant event that was taking place and dear to my heart.

I interviewed three different individuals; one man who dated another man who was in the Army while the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy was still in effect as well as two other men who are currently on individual ready reserve with two separate branches.

I came across some interviewing issues when I realized that the men didn’t want to talk about their feelings or opinions about homosexuality… at least not the straight men I interviewed. If I had more time to find more willing interviewees, I most definitely would have.

Brian Robbins was one of the more interesting people out of my three, even though he didn’t say much. I was unaware that he might be leaning towards the homophobic side of this situation. I was able to dig a little deeper and find some quotes and real information from his experiences that I could use in my story.

I was able to use Derek Kjar’s interview the most; we had a good rapport. He was willing to tell me everything he felt and saw happen while he was in this relationship with a military man.  I think this combination of people worked well for my story. Each of them had very different sides to this story.

I would love to have been able to interview more people for an article like this. I did have a woman lined up to interview but it fell through. Women tend to be more receptive to detailed communication that would have been another perspective to add to the mix.

ABOUT ME:

Sheryl is a senior at the University of Utah studying communication and anthropology. She will be graduating this December 2012. She received her Associate of Science at the Salt Lake Community College in 2008. She has worked in retail and customer service for seven years.  She has recently acquired an internship in event planning at the Utah Kids Club. She plans on going into the event planning field after she graduates.

Photo by Frank Langheinrich

MY STORIES:

• Charisse Hunter: ‘My dream is to live in the sky, not on land’
• Salt Lake Valley schools and shops adapt to changes in the photo industry

MY BLOG:
Time is a valuable resource and during my story I was shown just how much time is really needed. As I began to plan for my interview, I found that I had to navigate my own time constraints while also being extra attentive to the time of my interviewee.

Planning, recording, interpreting and putting the story into a coherent story takes an incredible amount of time management skills.

I started to map out due dates, work schedules and school schedules. Those three things did not mesh well together. Planning interviews was a little complicated; both my sources have lives of their own.

But both sources were very accommodating and helpful. Charisse Hunter was willing to go to dinner at Salt Lake City Pizza and Pasta. This made it easy because it was both a very calming and neutral setting but also the interview was not rushed because one of us had to be somewhere.

Dylan’s interview was completely different but I was grateful that he was willing to take time out of his day to sit down with me for even a few minutes. I met with him in between classes one day and since we both had to go to class right after the interview I was trying to get as much done as I could in the short amount of time I had.

This proved to be a problem. I didn’t have all the information I needed and had to clarify a few things later in the week while trying to interpret what he told me. This ended up taking more time in the end. Calling back sources and clarifying took more time than following up during the first interviews would have taken.

The main thing that I learned through this whole class is that follow up and time are the two most important things in journalism. You can never have enough time and you need to always follow up, ask question after question, even if it doesn’t seem relevant at the time. Because, if you spend more time on trying to follow up later you just waste what little time you do have to write, rewrite and polish.

ABOUT ME:

I wish I could say that I have always known what I wanted to be when I grew up.

When I was little I remember looking at my mom and saying, “I want to be a nurse.” That was the only thing I wanted to do, until I was about 10 or 11 years old. Then I started watching the emergency and trauma reality shows on television. As the images of blood and trauma flashed across the screen and my stomach turned at the sights, both my mom and I knew that nursing was definitely out of the question! I didn’t really think about my future career again until late into my junior year of high school.

During my junior year, I started to research potential careers. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were just entering their prime, and I really enjoyed the new medium for personal professional communications. At first, like nursing, it sounded perfect, until I realized that it would be spending more time at a desk than out talking to people. I am a talker and sitting behind a desk was not what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. My mother said I should try doing public relations. Once I started to look at the opportunities and what I would be doing I knew that public relations was where I wanted to be.

I am now into my third year of classes at the University of Utah and will be finishing in December 2012 with a BA in mass communication and a minor in economics. I have great support and encouragement from my mother and my father, both graduates of the U.

I am only 20 years old and have a lot of time on my hands. I love the idea of travel. I can’t wait until I am done with school so I can go see the world. After enjoying some “me time,” I look forward to a long and happy career in a public relations role, ideally as part of the entertainment industry.

MY STORIES:

• Sharing a love of books
• Utah Transit Authority, Salt Lake Arts Council team up to bring artwork to TRAX stations

MY BLOG:

Writing a news story was different than I expected. News, to me, had always seemed like the most obscure form of writing. Research papers, I can do. Creative writing, easy. News writing fits somewhere between the two forms, combining the use of facts and knowledge with a zest and flavor that attracts an audience. Research papers are used to portray information, not to entertain, and creative writing hardly uses hard facts to make a point.

Thus my main dilemma first came from this hybrid style of writing that seemed so foreign to me. Trying not to take myself too seriously, I took to news writing the best way I knew how. I donned my coat, gathered my notebook for my interview and dived in.

Finding a topic I was eager to report about was crucial. I am a lover of good writing and one of my favorite ways to spend my time is reading. Being able to report on my favorite local bookstore was easy. It was something I loved, and something I wanted to share.

Playing the part of a reporter, a role I didn’t think I fit, required some digging. I knew less about my subject matter than I thought, and I had a lot to learn before interviewing anyone. By finding out some background information, I also learned who was best to interview.

I’m a first-time news writer. The interviewing process was something new to me. Here, I learned the most about writing and about me. This was the exciting part. To speak with others about a shared interest, to find out I had more in common with a person than I initially thought, and to watch a person speak about something that they are passionate about made my job as a news writer seem important. In the interview process, the story began to unfold. Not the outlined story I thought I would have, but a real, alive and breathing story. About people and life. My focus seemed to change with every question and every answer. I learned that asking the right questions is important, but letting the answers help develop a story was vital. One little question could lead to a branch of something I didn’t even think to cover; it showed what was exciting, what would stick out.

Writing this story showed me that news writing isn’t about making deadlines and breaking news. It can also be about people. It has been a process that I have enjoyed leaning about.

ABOUT ME:

As a junior in college, this is my first semester at the University of Utah. I have spent my last three years school hopping and soul searching.  Born and raised in Salt Lake City, I spent my college years trying to get away. I’ve been to two other universities, in Logan, Utah, and in Hawaii; now I find myself back where I started.

I value hard work more than I value talent. I have had to work hard to get to where I want to be and don’t regret a minute of it. I had to take a year off of school and work full time to pay off my adventures and learned more than I ever expected of the work field. Now juggling school and work, I appreciate my time in the classroom and love being around other students. No atmosphere is so enriching than a place where everyone wants to learn as much as I do.

I live life on a whim and don’t know where it will take me next.

MY STORIES:

MY BLOG:

ABOUT ME: